County students publish book on covering the inauguration

Rockville High School student Kelly Andersen, 17, reacts to seeing the cover of the book she and other county students produced on covering the presidential inauguration.

Nine students chatted excitedly last week as they watched a digital artist put the finishing touches on a book that will immortalize their experiences covering the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

As they were presented with a poster-sized copy of the book's cover, they fell silent.

"That poster just made my life," Jaishri Shankar, a 17-year-old senior at Rockville High School, said as she looked at the cover in the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Editorial, Graphics and Publishing Services facility in Rockville March 10.

Through essays and photographs, "What We Saw: The Inauguration Through the Eyes of MCPS Reporters," tells the stories of covering the historic inauguration from the eyes and ears of approximately two dozen county students from eight high schools.

The 16-page, full-color book was the brainchild of adviser Peter Daddone and the Journalism Academy at Rockville High.

John Marshall, head of MCPS printing and graphics, said this is the first time Montgomery County students have compiled their experiences from a presidential inauguration into a book of this type.

Daddone said the idea surfaced when Rockville students were given four press passes to the inaugural festivities. After sending his staff to cover the events in Washington, D.C., Daddone began looking for ways to showcase what the students covered for generations to come.

After gaining Marshall's approval, Daddone contacted every high school journalism adviser in the county asking for submissions. He received pictures and stories from students at Springbrook in Silver Spring, Damascus, Sherwood in Sandy Spring, Walter Johnson in Bethesda, Paint Branch in Burtonsville, Northwest in Germantown and Walt Whitman in Bethesda.

Polly Ingram, a senior at Rockville and project editor for the book, said she devoted two to three hours a day on the book for the last couple of weeks.

"I'm really excited to put a finished product in everyone's hands," she said.

More than 500 photographs were placed over a picture of Obama speaking at a rally in Leesburg, Va., to create a mosaic image. The cover was created by Dan Nguyen, a visual graphic artist for Rockville's student newspaper, The Rampage.

"I am so proud to be a part of this," Shankar, an editor-in-chief of The Rampage, said. "Words just fail me."

Brian Fanney, a 16-year-old junior at Damascus High School, said he was excited to be included in the project. He contributed a story about attending the inauguration with his father.

"My journalism teacher mentioned the book to me and I thought it'd be amazing to be published in something," he said. "I don't know who would turn that down."

Daddone said approximately 3,500 copies of the book will be printed and available free of charge. He and students plan to give 25 to 40 copies to local libraries and distribute the book at the National Scholastic Press Association's fall convention, which will be held Nov. 13-16 in Washington, D.C.

Tom Bourdeaux, MCPS publications art director and pre-press manager for the project, said he plans to deliver the books to Rockville High early next week.